Imagine waking up to find that $50 and $100 bills have been outlawed…
That’s what happened to folks in India seven years ago.
On November 8, 2016, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a TV announcement to a stunned nation.
Claiming to be fighting tax evasion and terrorist funding, he said all 500- and 1,000-rupee notes were being “demonetized.” Without warning, they would cease to be legal tender.
Anyone holding these notes faced an ultimatum. Deposit them in a bank or exchange them for smaller-denomination notes within the next two months… or see their value plunge to zero.
Literally overnight, 86% of the physical cash circulating in the country was no longer spendable.
Chaos ensued…
ATMs ran out of cash. Long lines – even by Indian standards – formed outside banks as folks tried to deposit the banned notes.
Businesses shut down… commuters couldn’t pay cab fares… wage payments froze… people even had to cancel weddings and funerals.
I flew to Mumbai in the wake of the shocking news…
An Indian newsletter publisher invited me to speak about what was going on at a conference there.
I had been writing about the push by governments to get rid of physical cash and replace it with a new digital-only kind of money.
And India was “ground zero” of the War on Cash.
The conference organizers wanted me to talk about how the cash ban in India was part of a global trend… and what they could do about it.
I told them what I had been telling our readers back home…
Governments claim that by banning cash, they’re fighting crime… terrorism… money laundering… and counterfeiting. But the real aim of the War on Cash is more control over your money… and your life.
Without the anonymity that physical cash provides, central banks – and their masters in the government – will be able to watch, monitor, and record every transaction we make.
Unfortunately, my worst fears are coming true…
Last year, India launched a pilot program for the e-rupee. It’s a digital-only version of rupee cash.
It’s one of the 24 countries planning to launch CBDCs by the end of the decade.
That’s according to the Bank for International Settlements (“BIS”), an influential central banking think tank.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. BIS figures reveal that more than 110 countries are researching or experimenting with digital-only cash.
According to colleague and digital currency expert Teeka Tiwari, the U.S. will be one of them.
As he revealed in a new video message, the Fed has been laying the groundwork for a U.S dollar CBDC.
On July 20, its FedNow instant payment network went live. It’s the biggest upgrade to the U.S. payments system in 50 years. And it uses a digital ledger to instantly settle transactions between banks.
That makes it the perfect launch pad for a digital dollar.
That’s why Teeka is warning of a coming “Biden Shock”…
Narendra Modi isn’t the first head of state to make a shocking monetary announcement on TV.
On August 15, 1971, President Nixon interrupted the popular cowboy TV show Bonanza with the following announcement for Americans…
Prosperity without war requires action on three fronts. We must create more and better jobs; we must stop the rise in the cost of living; we must protect the dollar from the attacks of international money speculators.
Then Nixon unleashed what we now know as the “Nixon shock.”
To defend the dollar against attacks from “international money speculators,” he said he was unlinking the U.S. dollar from gold.
This ended the gold-based international money system that had been in place, on and off, since the 1870s.
And Teeka says we could be about to see a similar shock announcement – this time from President Biden. Teeka…
The U.S. government will soon announce a mandatory national recall on the U.S. dollar. It will replace it with a new digital-only version. This will be radically different from the cash you have in your wallet.
This will strip you of any remaining privacy. All digital transactions can be tracked and recorded. It will be like living in a glass house. The government will be able to peer into your most intimate financial dealings.
Most transactions today are already digital…
You tap your debit card… or use Apple Pay or Google Pay… to pay for stuff.
You also make payments by way of digital bank transfers.
But today, you still have the option of using physical cash. In a world of CBDCs, that option will disappear.
And CBDCs will be different from the digital forms of money we use today. Back to Teeka…
With CBDCs, the government will be able to see what you’re spending your money on… and where and when you’re spending it. And if that’s not scary enough, this new kind of cash will be programmable. So, the government will also be able to control what you spend your money on.
It could limit how much you’re allowed to spend on things it believes are bad for you – like red meat. Or it could control how much you’re allowed on fossil fuels. Think gas for your car or oil for home heating.
It could also stop you from buying books that criticize the government. And it could even program your digital dollars so that they won’t work for buying a firearm.
That’s the bad news. The good news is Teeka has laid out three steps you can take right now to protect your wealth in his video message.
Some folks won’t care that the government is preparing to take further control of their financial lives. But if you see the threat to your privacy… and want to find out what you can do about it, watch Teeka’s presentation here..
Also, keep an eye on your inbox for more from me on the War on Cash. Unfortunately, the trend is still in its early stages. I’ll be updating you on new developments as they happen.
Regards,
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Chris Lowe
Editor, The Daily Cut